What one's own business is was expressed by Jesus in his reply to the inquiring scirbe: "The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Now clearly, if a man is devoting his whole thought, energy, and desire to loving Principle, he has no time left for interfering with his neighbor; he will love that neighbor best by doing his own work thoroughly and leaving his neighbor to do his. From one end to the other the New Testament is filled with warnings against minding other people's business, and Paul distinctly admonishes: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you." Such teaching is, however, singularly unpalatable to mortal mind. That curious supposition sways between a blind terror of doing its own thinking and a passionate desire to do other people's; and its fury beats fiercely on any one who challenges its cowardice or its despotism, so that autocracy in all its forms has ever found mankind an easy prey. Nevertheless, the only way out of the mesmerism of evil is to seek the straight and narrow road of individual understanding and demonstration, to establish one's faith, or proof of things not seen, and to test it by one's works.

If the student of Christian Science striving to achieve this finds his progress slow, he will probably find that he is giving way either to the temptation not to think or to the allurement of managing others' thinking. The writer, being a schoolmaster, has found himself peculiarly open to the latter line of suggestion, and wishes therefore to expose some of its methods. One of the commonest devices used in war is that of diverting the enemy's attention and inducing him to scatter his fire, if possible in such a way that it is expended only where it is ineffective. All kinds of means are used to persuade the enemy that the right marks are in the wrong places, and the main attack is then developed without difficulty. Now the writer has found this stratagem being continually employed by mortal mind, so that he was induced to give much time, thought, and care to explaining Science to those who were not ready to accept it. The work always seemed so necessary and so unselfish; but in fact, it was a very subtle form of self-aggrandizement. Regarding this Mrs. Eddy has written in "Science and Health with to the Scriptures" (p. 457): "Christian Science is not an exception to the general rule, that there is no excellence without labor in a direct line. One cannot scatter his fire, and at the same time hit the mark." Nevetheless, the temptation to scatter one's fire is sometimes intense, partly because so much dust is thus created, giving a pleasant sensation of achievement, and partly because mortal mind hates the discipline of steady endeavor.

The very next words of our Leader, on the page just quoted, illustrate another device of the supposititious serpent: "To pursue other vocations and advance rapidly in the demonstration of this Science, is not possible." One cannot, of course, sever one's connection with the world because one has bought a copy of Science and Health, and so the effort of evil is to engage one as deeply as possible in material work. It is the old, old ruse of William the Conqueror at Hastings, the mock attack and mock retreat, inducing the garrison to rush from their post in the flush of a fictitious victory. Within a short time of emerging from severe sickness the writer found himself involved in four branches of active work outside his vocation, all excellent in their way, and all demanding unselfish and therefore laudable effort. Now the lesson is being gradually learned that the first work required is the spiritualization of one's own thought. As this has been sought, and less importance attached to outward results, a very great clearance has taken place. Several of the outside pieces of work taken on have been transferred quite naturally to others, while for the one which seems his natural duty, helpers have been found. Still greater, perhaps, has been the clearance in the vocational work. As more and more attention has been given to pure Christian Science, it has been found that practically no trouble is experienced in discipline, the vigor of Truth supplying absorbing interest to the class. The way is thus being steadily cleared for the abandonment of other work, and the more rapid demonstration of Science; and one actually gives far more love to one's neighbor than before. The whole effort of mortal mind is directed at complicating a perfectly simple problem.